Measurement of acoustic attenuation in South Pole ice

Using the South Pole Acoustic Test Setup (SPATS) and a retrievable transmitter deployed in holes drilled for the IceCube experiment, we have measured the attenuation of acoustic signals by South Pole ice at depths between 190 m and 500 m. Three data sets, using different acoustic sources, have been...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Astroparticle Physics
Main Authors: Abbasi, R, Abdou, Y, Abu-Zayyad, T, Adams, J, Aguilar, J, Ahlers, M, Andeen, K, Auffenberg, J, Bai, X, Baker, M, Barwick, S, Bay, R, Alba, J, Beattie, K, Beatty, J, Bechet, S, Becker, J, Becker, K, Benabderrahmane, M, Berdermann, J, Berghaus, P, Berley, D, Bernardini, E, Bertrand, D, Besson, D
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2016
Subjects:
South Pole
South pole
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2010.10.003
https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:d727942d-97e7-4c0b-9a8c-156f6f524263
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Summary:Using the South Pole Acoustic Test Setup (SPATS) and a retrievable transmitter deployed in holes drilled for the IceCube experiment, we have measured the attenuation of acoustic signals by South Pole ice at depths between 190 m and 500 m. Three data sets, using different acoustic sources, have been analyzed and give consistent results. The method with the smallest systematic uncertainties yields an amplitude attenuation coefficient α = 3.20 ± 0.57 km-1 between 10 and 30 kHz, considerably larger than previous theoretical estimates. Expressed as an attenuation length, the analyses give a consistent result for λ ≡ 1/α of ∼300 m with 20% uncertainty. No significant depth or frequency dependence has been found. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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